My Amazon Reviews: Semi Precious Weapons "You Love You"

I've decided to make my last post of the year one of my 2010 favorites.

"It's not my fault I look better in her party dress..." 
4 Out of 5 Stars

The second album (and major label debut) of Semi Precious Weapons lives up to their outrageous reputation. As someone who long back bought the original "We Love You" CD on indie Razor and Tie, the main difference between the two albums is bigger and meatier production. The calculated Eff-You attitude is still there in gallons of glitz, and charismatic lead sinner/singer gay/ambisexual Justin Tranter wails away like a cross between David Bowie and Bon Scott.

"Girl, go ahead and drink, cuz I can only be so many things. But when you leave, please leave your pretty to me," Tranter moans on the album's most epic cut, the ballad "Leave Your Pretty to Me." This is a band that knows that fans make bands onto the images that they want to see (posters, magazines, etc), and SPW exploit that fact like few have since Alice Cooper. They also understand that for many guitar wielding misfits, being a big star might be the only way out ("Rock and Roll Never Looked So Beautiful"). Then they set up "I Could Die," a glorious racket that sounds like David Bowie conjured up a New York Dolls glam bomb and dropped it on AC/DC's "Highway to Hell." Don't leave out the non-subtle innuendo of "Sticky With Champagne's" 'she don't swallow top shelf, she spits it out all over herself, sticky! sticky! Sticky!'

This is an album that scares church ladies. And get this; the band met while they were students at Boston's Berklee School of Music. That's right, the same prestigious home of noteworthy grads like Paula Cole, Bruce Cockburn, Gary Burton, Al DiMeola, Pat Methany and most of Aerosmith gave us an album whose first line is "I can't pay my rent but I'm F---ing gorgeous." Lady Gaga, no stranger to outrageous herself, is friends of the band and took them on tour as her opening act (she helped them secure their deal and is the executive producer, along with glam-godfather Tony Visconti). That's all why "You Love You" could be the most important CD you listen to this year. Tired of conformist pap and posing hipsters passing themselves off as dangerous? Then bring on Semi-Precious Weapons.

PS: Minor quibble. Three songs - "Magnetic Baby," "Semi Precious Weapons" and "Rock and Roll Never Locked So Beautiful" - are re-recordings of songs from "We Love You" and "Put A Diamond In It" shows up twice. Four of ten songs are retreads, and that is troubling. Of course if you missed "We Love You," then this is no problem at all.

 

My Amazon Reviews: Kings of Leon "Come Around Sundown"

Riding with The Kings  
4 Out Of 5 Stars

The Kings of Leon took the old fashioned route to stardom; they made consistent albums, toured relentlessly, ignored trends and waited for the world to catch up. Their fifth album, "Come Around Sundown," capitalizes on that steady as we go philosophy by keeping to the basics. Caleb Followill still sings like he's got honey in his mouth, the guitars are big and echoed, yet trace their roots to Southern Rock via U2's arena blast, and the songs themselves are rants and rolls about love, women and sex.

If you caught on to Kings Of Leon via "Only By The Night's" hits, that will probably suit you just fine. For those of us with the band since "Youth and Young Manhood," this will fee like a holding pattern. Granted, they are still messing with the formula (the dow-woppy "Mary" or the slide guitar country of "Back Down South"), for the most part, "Come Around Sundown" sounds pat.

That still isn't enough to wash them off just yet, as both "The End" and the hooky "Radioactive" hit the right spots. "Beach Side" could be the smoothest track they've done so far. The bass line in "Pony Up" makes me smile each time I hear it. Kings Of Leon have yet to disappoint me, and even though "Come Around Sundown" doesn't show the kind of exponential progressions that the first four albums did from each other, it's still a great rock album from a band at the top of their game.